Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Items

‘Die Hard’ Director McTiernan: I Was a Republican Until I Went to Jail

“Die Hard” director John McTiernan was just recently released from a federal minimum security prison. He served a little less than a year after being convicted of lying to the Feds about his association with notorious Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano. During an interview with CNN, McTiernan said his experience in prison radicalized him. He once saw himself as a Republican but now feels differently.

Apparently prison taught the director that the federal government is using the War on Drugs to put black and brown people in jail so they can’t vote:

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I met 800 guys, 90% of them clearly weren’t criminals and they were 80% black and brown. They weren’t criminals at all. Most of the people in for drugs are in for what’s called “ghost dope.” That’s dope that nobody can see because it never existed. You find somebody with one joint. You get him scared to death. Then have him start naming everybody he knows. Fighting a federal charge successfully cost $3 or $4 million. None of these people have anything like that. They have no way to do it, so it’s just make the deal, whatever the deal is. They wind up 8 or 9 years in prison.

The thing is, it’s not accident. It’s a deliberate, political intention … It’s a giant [voter] de-registration machine. It is Jim Crow spread to all 50 states. They pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and in 1974 they announce the War on Drugs. If they hadn’t had drugs, they would’ve had a war on chitlins and soul food. They wanted a way to bring the power of the government against black and brown people. … Before all this happened I thought I was a Republican.

Hollywood Wins $26 Million In Tax Cuts for Their Rich Selves

“House of Cards” producers just hosed Maryland taxpayers down to the tune of $26 million dollars in corporate welfare. The Netflix show that stars Kevin Spacey threatened to leave if Maryland did not let them benefit from prosperity-creating Reaganomics while every other taxpayer and business suffered under oppressive Obamanomics.

The good news is that when the rubber hits the road, even Hollywood and Maryland are forced to admit that lowering taxes does result in a positive trickle-down effect for the working man.

In better news, President Frank Underwood will return for a third season.

What a way for Entertainment Weekly to suck up to almost every studio movie that will be released between now and the August while pretending to act like a magazine, as opposed to the ass-kisser to the industry it really is.

Xbox Entertainment Studios is gearing up with original, scripted and unscripted series that will stream on its console. A “Halo” television series, a series of documentary films, and reality show about soccer are all part of the line-up. Xbox will also stream the Bonnaroo music festival live between Friday June 13 and Sunday June 15:

With the Bonnaroo app, fans can enjoy live music like never before, with a virtual experience featuring the best performances, multiple stages, biggest artists and amazing SuperJams, and explore this year’s lineup to see the best of Bonnaroo’s past with exclusive performances. Fans can also join the conversation with fellow virtual-Bonnaroovians and get connected to their friends and the festival. Xbox is the exclusive broadcasting partner for Bonnaroo and the only location to get all of the interactive features.

Live-event streaming is the next Streaming frontier I have my eye on. Streaming has already conquered series television. Most importantly, streaming has already conquered monetizing its business model and presenting its product in a way that’s very easy to use and attractive to consumers. The only question that remains is whether or not Streaming can put the final nail in the coffin of bundled cable by broadcasting sports and other live events, like newscasts, presidential debates, and ceremonies like the Oscars.

This is actually where I think streaming can truly outshine broadcast and cable television

For over a decade now television has tried to glom on to the Internet with a bunch of gimmicks designed to make watching whatever show a “interactive experience.” Nothing has ever really worked, except perhaps Twitter where people can OMG! in real time.

The problem with television is that it is just television. There isn’t much you can do with it. Someone else controls the vertical and the horizontal.

Streaming television carries with it the bandwidth to be truly interactive. You could choose your own camera angles, etc…

How much appeal would this kind of interactivity have for a live sporting event? I’m not a sports fan, so I can’t answer. But I would think that golf fans would like to jump around on their own following a favorite golfers instead of a network doing it for them.

Imagine, though, the possibilities this opens up. With digital high-def cameras being so cheap, what couldn’t be streamed live using a simple app? Think of the possibilities.